


Running Water

by ilvos01



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9483011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilvos01/pseuds/ilvos01
Summary: IN WHICH a conversation is remembered





	

"Enter," the voice spoke gently. The paper-thin stone doors slid open with a slight whisper, and Rose Quartz stepped through them.

  
The room she entered was dark. So dark, that as the entrance slid shut behind her, she could not see anything. She heard the faintest rush of running water, echoing off of stone, but it was so quiet she could not place the distance it came from. It stunned Rose's mind for a moment, but she quickly grew accustomed to it. She waited.

  
The slightest movement of her head made her long hair rustle in her ears.

  
"My Diamond?" She asked. The words felt loud in the dark environment.

  
The response was immediate. "Yes, Rose." The voice was authoritative, yet gentle. It was a voice Rose Quartz heard in her bones, and deep in her heart.

  
She put one foot forward and took a bow, large and graceful. "My Diamond. I apologize, I cannot see you."

  
"Truly?" The voice was laced with a single thread of concern, almost imperceptible. "I apologize, I often forget the limitations of those outside my sisters."

  
A soft, pink light began to come from the floor. Rose looked down, and saw that the floor of a room was a fountain, flowing from the center of the room and past the walls. The walls were, in fact, a single shallow dome, which met at the center, directly above the head of Pink Diamond herself.

  
She was large, just as large as her sisters. And the single most beautiful person Rose had ever seen in her life. Long, straight hair of pure silver cascaded over her rose-colored shoulders. A form-fitting white gown stretched down to her legs, exposing her feet. She sat cross-legged, floating several inches off of the center of the pool. Her face was calm & collected. Her bright red eyes stared intently at Rose's.

  
The smaller gem stood up to her full height. "Of course, My Diamond."

  
Pink Diamond took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "It is odd, to my view. I can perceive my surroundings through the motion of the air. I can tell you what any gem on this planet is doing simply through the sound in my ear." She paused a moment, simply sitting, eyes closed. "I can feel the light from other galaxies, warming my skin."

  
She fell silent. Rose let the silence stretch out for a moment. She knew her Diamond's enjoyment of meditation, and had no wish to break her from it. There was, however, business to attend to. "My Diamond," she finally interceded. "I bring news from your sisters."

  
Pink Diamond's scarlet eyes opened once more, still fixed calmly on Rose Quartz.

  
"White Diamond continues to excavate the crystalline deposits of Homeworld, with waning success. Our population growth is slowing."

  
"Hmm." She did not seem surprised.

  
Rose continued. "Yellow Diamond, however, reports that investigations into gem-seeding are advancing quickly. She claims that soon we will no longer need to mine from Homeworld, and in fact can excavate new gems from any sufficiently dense deposit of minerals."

  
Pink Diamond did not respond immediately. "Did my sister supply you with any information into the requirements or side-effects of this process?"

  
Rose bit her lip. "No, my Diamond."

  
Pink Diamond nodded.

  
"Blue Diamond," Rose continued, "sends her emissary from the Second Planet. She claims that her settlement there has been properly established, and resource development is flowing optimally. She intends to continue onto the Third Planet."

  
"Leaving the management of Deus in the ever-capable hands of my yellow sister, no doubt."

  
Rose hesitated, off-put by the archaic name of the Second Planet in the Homeworld system. "Only in terms of resource management, my Diamond, as always." She took a deep breath. "Do you fear her to be of ill-intentions?"

  
The Diamond did not waver her gaze from Rose. "No. My sister shall undoubtedly handle the resources with vigor and wit, gaining full use of that dead rock to help the gem way of life." She brought one delicate, powerful hand up to gently stroke her chin. "Yet Yellow Diamond is single-minded in her goals. Do not forget this."

  
"Yes, my Diamond."

  
"How are my people, Rose Quartz?" Pink Diamond leaned imperceptibly forward. "How are the gems?"

  
Rose nearly jumped, startled at the question. "I-.... that is, what do you mean, my Diamond?"

  
She did not respond, only leaned back and closed her eyes. She remained this way for several minutes, and Rose could sense that she was not awaiting an answer, but formulating one. It baffled the smaller gem how her Diamond could resolve complex legal and emotional answers among her people swiftly, with but a few words, yet seemed to ponder ceaselessly over trivial or uncomplicated matters.

  
Pink Diamond took a deep breath. "Follow me, my Rose." And with that, she sank downwards into the water, causing nary a ripple in the flowing pool.

  
Rose looked down, and cringed, ever so slightly. She took a moment to clear her mind and calm her thoughts. With a bit of effort, her density shifted, and she slid downwards, following her Diamond into the abyss.

  
Pink Diamond had adopted a standing pose in the water, Rose saw, still as the grave, save for the her straight silver hair which danced in the current of the water like a flag in the wind. The water had straight walls that extended downwards from the dome above, creating a sort of stone tube, which they now descended through. As they descended, side-by-side, the light from the surface above grew dimmer and dimmer, until Rose and her diamond were again shrouded in blackness. "Do you read?" Pink Diamond said aloud. Her voice was as clear within the water as it ever was.

  
"...Read? Yes, my Diamond, I am capable." Rose tried to look her diamond in the eye, but could not see in the darkness. She aimed her face as best she could.

  
"I know you are capable of reading, my Rose. I asked if you make a habit of it. Do you seek knowledge for knowledge's sake?"

  
Struggling for an answer, Rose tried being honest. "No, my Diamond. In truth, I am not sure what you mean."

  
"In the days of old," Pink Diamond replied, "we read often. My sisters and I ruled together over whatever gems we found washed upon the beach. We all knew each other then, and writing flowed like water. Poetry and songs, treatises on science and philosophy. Yellow Diamond often dabbled in poetry herself, though she would today deny it.

  
"As our population grew, so too did our body of work. Our knowledge as a people flowed, and with it, our advancement in all fields, such as computers and space flight. But we grow ever specialized. Once you would be hard-pressed to find a pilot who did not know of Song of Horizons, yet now they each know only of their ship, their task."

  
A light appeared beneath them. In it, Rose could see her Diamond's basic form, slowly growing more clear. Pink Diamond's eyes were trained calmly on Rose Quartz. Rose wrung her hands together. "So, what you are saying, my Diamond, is you do not like where our culture has gone?"

  
The light grew, and the features of her beautiful face came into focus. Rose could see Pink Diamond's pupils. "No, my Rose." She smiled, a gentle, serene smile, alighting upon her face as gently and subtly as the light growing upon it. "That is far from the truth."

  
They descended upon the growing light, coming out into an open cavern. Both gems turned to look out upon it. It was the inside of a massive geode, the walls riddled with sharp, shining gemstone structures. Their tube had become a stream of water, cylindrical, descending from a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. It joined many similar streams of water, pooling in the bottom of the massive space. Light glinted across all of the crystalline edges, making the entire space suffuse with surreal, colored light. Rose squinted, and she could see the workers–gemstones of various types, carving paths throughout the great geode cavern. Rubies and Emeralds wielded axes, carving chunks of raw crystal out based on the smaller, colored shapes within. They were carted towards a team of artisans, supervised by a Pearl, who more expertly separated the individual souls who were hibernating therein.

  
Each gem, not quite freed from the crystal stone, were then carefully packaged and hauled away. Rose watched one cartload travel through a tunnel, out of the strange cavern and off towards the strange process of making people. She sighed, feeling a warmth within herself. It really was a beautiful process, something that felt whole and right. For every crystal facet they mined in this geode, there were a million which bore swirling patterns of color and mineral, which in a million years could be more Gems. And this geode was one of hundreds below Homeworld's surface.

  
"Do you know of the myth?" Pink Diamond asked.

  
Her calm voice startled Rose out of her reverie. "T-to which myth are you referring, my Diamond?"

  
"The Unmade People," she said, nodding towards the swirls of nonfocused color. "For as long as we have mined our citizens from these caverns, Gems have wondered at them. Some say they are alive in there. No barriers, no burdens."

  
Rose Quartz nodded.

  
"Do you believe it?" the Diamond cocked her head. Her silver hair flowed around her shoulders, like strands of mercury.

  
"I.... do not know, my Diamond." Rose shrugged one shoulder. "If they are alive, it is in a very different manner from us." She looked again to the face of her Diamond.

  
Only, Pink Diamond's face did not look back. She instead looked out upon the crystal cavern, tracing the flow of darkened colors, just beneath the surface. Rose bit her lip, but remained silent.

  
They reached the bottom of the flow of water. The solid stream spread out, no more than a few centimeters off of the surface, flowing across the smooth ground and towards the carved collection pool, some meters distant. Both gems touched down simultaneously, and strode out of the falling stream, water rolling perfectly off of their projected skin. As they walked across the carved paths, towards the line of busy workers, Rose adopted a faster pace, to keep up with the long-legged Pink Diamond. The taller Gem spoke as she walked. "You came from this cavern, did you know?"

  
A chill ran down Rose's spine. "Yes, my Diamond."

  
"As did I, when I chose you."

  
She paused her stride, and Rose followed suit, looking up at the godly pink visage. The Diamond had fallen silent, again. But not for long. "This-" she swept an arm out, over the cavern, "-all of this, will change. All things change, Rose Quartz."

  
Abruptly, she knelt down, facing and directly in front of Rose. Rose stepped back, in shock. They were now in very close proximity, even though Pink Diamond's face was still a full meter above her own, looking straight down at her with piercing eyes.

  
The beat of Rose's thoughts quickened, and she held her breath, even as a blush spread across her face. Pink Diamond spoke words, clearer and more intimate than Rose had ever heard.

 

"Things change around us. We change with them. There is but one difference between us, and all the workings of the universe around us."

  
Rose spoke softly. "What is it?"

  
The cavern about them fell black. Her Diamond grasped her hands tightly, and all the universe shrank to just the two of them, in that moment.

  
Pink Diamond spoke in a voice almost too soft to hear. "We seek out each other."

* * *

Rose Quartz opened her eyes.

  
She was on the beach. The horizon was lightening, orange sky shimmering in the reflection of the gentle waves. Her breathing calmed as she stared at it, her pulse slowed. The breeze was cold but that light was warm. A groan to her right revealed Greg, still fast asleep with his head across her swollen stomach.

  
She put a hand to it gently, caressing the skin around her gem. She could feel her hand, but also felt Steven feeling it. The baby slumbered, just like his father. They were the three of them connected, in some fashion deeper even than fusion. In the manner of legacy.

  
Rose Quartz closed her eyes, and fell back to sleep.

  
Deep in her womb, Steven Universe smiled, as he felt starlight dance across his skin.

**Author's Note:**

> This was sitting in my hard drive, 92% finished, since April I think. Mostly I wanted to portray Pink Diamond in an interesting manner, but recently my opinions on her appearance and fate have become slightly more nuanced. For example, it seems to me that White Diamond is more likely an Arch-Mother, instead of another diamond sister. Suffice to say, I fully expect my Pink Diamond and Sugar's Pink Diamond will bear little resemblance.


End file.
